Marketing is one of the “necessary evils” of contemporary
consumerism, and it doesn’t look like it’s ever going away. In fact,
technological advances have made marketing all the more annoying, if only for
the increase in scope and quantity. No other consumer entity has mastered
marketing more than the folks at Disney (owners of the ABC TV network, ESPN,
Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, etc., etc., etc…). Tomorrowland (named after a section of Disney’s theme parks) is a
film that should represent the “high water mark” of Disney’s synergistic approach
to marketing, in that the movie is, after all – a Disney commercial. The
overabundance of “Disnergy” (as I call it) in Tomorrowland doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie, but the ever-present
dominance of “mouse ear” branding is distracting.

Tomorrowland is a
story that’s difficult to explain, but suffice to say it involves a lot of time
travel. We begin with a little boy named Frank (Thomas Robinson) attending the
1964 World’s Fair in New York. Frank
intends to enter some kind of young inventors competition, but his home-built
jet pack is rejected by Nix (Hugh Laurie), the man in charge. A cute young
woman named Athena (Raffey Cassidy) catches Frank’s eye and gives him a
mysterious pin. Frank follows Athena to a particular World’s Fair attraction
named “IT’S A SMALL WORLD” (now, try and get THAT song out of your head), gets
into a boat, and is transported to another dimension (in the future) called –
you guessed it – Tomorrowland.

>>>spoilers follow<<<

The story picks up in present day, as a young idealistic
teen named Casey (Britt Robertson) is caught trying to prevent the destruction
of a NASA launch pad in Cape Canaveral. You see, she thinks giving up the space
program represents some kind of turning point in human progression. After her trespassing
arrest, Casey discovers one of those Tomorrowland pins that gives her a glimpse
of the future world whenever she touches it. In her quest to find out what the
pin is all about, Casey meets Athena, who turns out to be a robot. She also
encounters a marauding detail of robots intent on killing her. Athena leads
Casey to upstate New York, where the adult Frank (George Clooney) lives in
seclusion. Frank was kicked out of Tomorrowland for inventing something bad
(we’re not ever clear on what that is); banished to a bleak world on the verge
of collapse because nobody gets along, we don’t recycle, and we’re greedy.

With a little newfound hope, Frank reluctantly takes Casey
and Athena to Paris, where they use a hidden portal to transport back to
Tomorrowland. When they arrive, they discover an equally bleak future with the
evil Nix in charge of those killer robots, holding onto the idea that humanity
is hopeless.

Before I get back to the “marketing” diatribe, let me first
go over some of the fatal flaws of Tomorrowland.
The biggest problem is the confusing story, complete with an abundance of
time/space paradoxes that are never fully resolved. When coupled with an
equally frustrating lack of motives (other than the main characters somehow
possessing the smarts AND moral compass necessary to champion the movie’s
preachy message), you get a hodgepodge of a movie that makes little sense.
Speaking of “preachy,” there’s no one more suited for exposition on
environmental waste, greed and war than the puppy-eyed and sanctimonious
Clooney, who never shies away from shaming the world about its injustices.

On the positive side, Tomorrowland
does have some good special effects and a fair amount of action. Brit Robertson
is likeable, and the enchanting Raffey Cassidy is a new talent we should be
seeing in a lot in future films.

Back to the “Disneyfication” of the world as we know it.

It should be noted that Tomorrowland
went through quite a few re-writes and edits to scrub verbal references to
Disney and in particular Disneyland itself, where the first “Tomorrowland” area
was created inside the theme park. In the original version of the film, Disney
himself is credited – along with Einstein, Tesla, and Edison - with creating
the future utopian world seen in the movie. Tomorrowland
might be a remake of Disney’s 2007 Meet
the Robinsons, another ode to Walt’s supposed vision of the future. News
flash: Disney was a successful animator and self-promoter, not a
prophet/philosopher.

I suppose I should give Disney Studios credit for editing the
“Walt” praise down a notch, but those aforementioned Disney product placements
are almost as obvious as a pop-up window on the movie screen. One particular scene
happens inside a science fiction hobby shop, complete with SEVERAL references
to Star Wars including music and
sound effects (hey, did you know the new Disney/Star Wars movie is coming out
in December? LEST WE FORGET). There’s even an “Easter egg” for Disney’s 1979
atrocious Black Hole movie. The
obvious “Disnergy” might have been less subtle if Clooney had been wearing
mouse ears.

Look, I have nothing against Clooney or Brad Bird. Both are
very talented and have impressive bodies of work to prove it. Tomorrowland seems like a labor of love
for the both of them, trying to reach out for a little optimism and make the
world a better place. It’s sad that it seems as though no one can get that
message without passing through the Disney gift shop.